Heavy casks containing hazardous materials such as high level nuclear waste and fissile materials are typically handled by a set of trunnions. The trunnions are generally made of a cylindrical bar stock welded to a hard location near the top of the cask. The trunnion must project out sufficiently to provide an engagement shoulder for a lift yoke to engage it. This projection, however, is a problem where the cask must be designed to withstand a free fall event such as that required for transport casks containing used nuclear fuel. The federal regulations and the IAEA standards require the cask to be qualified under a free fall event from a height of 30 feet onto an essentially unyielding surface under any orientation of impact. In such a case, the cask may be equipped with an impact limiter at each extremity to absorb the kinetic energy of impact by crushing. The projection of the trunnion, made of a high strength steel or other alloy material, however, interferes with the crushing action of the impact limiter if the impact orientation of the cask is aligned with the plane of the trunnion. The solution to this design problem thus far has been to tap the trunnions and thread them into the cask's flange. The trunnion is removed when not in use to eliminate the threat of trunnion penetration during the above-mentioned design basis accident event. This approach has three major shortcomings:                (1) The threaded joint sometimes freezes under the bending moment from the lifted load making the trunnion's subsequent removal problematic;        (2) It may not be possible to handle the cask without the trunnions in place (after all, their sole purpose is to enable cask's handling); and        (3) The trunnions are restricted to be located in the neck of the cask so that its projection beyond the cask's body is minimized.        
The above limitations make the conventional trunnion design a rather unsatisfactory embodiment. Thus, a need exists for a trunnion design that overcomes the aforementioned deficiencies.